Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [20 Dec- 25 Dec]

This week 47 Indian startups raised funding, of which 44 received a total of about $1,495 million or $1.49 billion. Cars24 topped the week by raising $400 million, followed by Razorpay and OfBusiness which raised $375 million and $325 million respectively.

Meanwhile, the funding of the three of the total funded startups remained undisclosed.

Below is the summary of the deals closed this week

Growth/late startups (10 deals)

Cars24: E-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles Cars24 has raked in $400 million in its Series G round led by Alpha Wave Global (formerly Falcon Edge Capital) along with participation from other existing investors. The round includes a cumulative debt funding of $100 million from investors across India, Australia, and the UAE. 

Razorpay: Business-focused payment gateway and neo banking platform Razorpay has raised $375 million in its Series F round led by Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital and TCV. 

OfBusiness: Industrial goods and services procurement platform OfBusiness has scooped up $325 million in its Series G round led by Alpha Wave Ventures II, Tiger Global Management and Softbank Vision Fund 2. 

Zepto: Ten-minute grocery delivery startup Zepto has raised $100 million in its Series C round led by YC Continuity. New and existing investors including Glade Brook, Nexus, Breyer Capital, Lachy Groom, Global Founders Capital and Contrary Capital also participated in the fresh round.

Jumbotail: B2B marketplace Jumbotail has raised $85 million in Series C funding round led by Artal Asia Pte. Ltd. along with Ajax Capital.

Captain Fresh: Tech-enabled B2B seafood marketplace Captain Fresh has raised $40 million Series B investment led by Tiger Global and Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures).

Hevo Data: Hevo Data, Inc., a no-code data integration platform, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital India, the company said in a statement.

Monster.com: Monster.com, a Quess company, and an online talent platform, has raised Rs 137.5 crore (around $18 million) in a funding round led by Akash Bhanshali (Volrado Venture Partners) and Mohandas Pai (Meridian Investments), with participation from Quess.

Sirona Hygiene: After announcing the acquisition of Miss Malini, The Good Glamm Group on Tuesday announced it has invested Rs 100 crore or $13.3 million in Delhi-based Sirona Hygiene.

RIPPLR: Ripplr, a tech-enabled distribution and logistics ecosystem platform, has announced that it has raised $ 12 million in pre-Series B round. The round was a mix of equity and debt, which saw participation from Japanese conglomerate Sojitz Corporation and Stride Ventures along with existing investors 3one4 Capital, Zephyr Peacock India Growth Fund and Chand Family Office – Yukti.

Early-stage startups (37 including 3 undisclosed)

Ninety One: Cycle maker Ninety One raised nearly $30 million (Rs 225 crore) in Series A round from A91 Partners, according to a release shared by the company. This round values the firm at about Rs 1,000 crore.

Unbox Robotics: Robotech startup Unbox Robotics has raised $7 million in a Series-A funding round led by 3one4 Capital followed by Sixth Sense Ventures, Redstart Labs.

FRND: FRND, a Bengaluru-based audio romance and friend discovery startup, has raised $6.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) creator KRAFTON. The round also saw participation from existing investors — India Quotient and Elevation Capital. 

TheHouseMonk: Aurum Proptech Ltd. on Friday said its board approved an investment of $5 million in TheHouseMonk, a business-to-business (B2B) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startup in the real estate industry.

Adloid: Adloid, an AR builder platform, has raised $4 million in its pre-Series A round led by Chiratae Ventures (Formerly IDG Ventures), and Lenskart Vision Fund.

Jupitice: Chandigarh-based Jupitice, which offers an end-to-end digital platform for private courts, has raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round of funding from the fund management company, Almas Global Opportunity Fund.

NirogStreet: NirogStreet, a technology-led Ayurveda doctor platform, has raised $4 million (around Rs 30 crore) in a funding round led by CE-Ventures, the corporate venture capital (VC) platform of Crescent Enterprises and ICMG.

TenderCuts: Homegrown venture debt firm Stride Ventures has invested Rs 30 crore or around $4 million in a funding round in meat and seafood-ordering platform TenderCuts.

Huechem Textiles: TIW Capital Group’s TIW India Buyout Fund has invested Rs 30 crore or $3.94 million in Huechem Textiles — which manufactures, distributes, and markets men’s everyday wear products under the brand Chromozome.

Aarna Networks: Software and edge computing firm Aarna Networks announced it has secured $3.5 million in seed funding from SVQuad Ventures, with participation from Inventus Capital, RiSO Capital and Arka Ventures, and more.

Eggoz: Gurugram-headquartered consumer brand for fresh and chemical-free eggs, Eggoz, has raised $3.5 million in a Series A round led by Nabventures (NABARD), a venture capital fund anchored by National bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

Veefin: Supply Chain Fintech startup Veefin has raised $3 million in a Series A round from Dubai-based investor Rajesh Rajendran.

Gobillion: Social commerce platform Gobillion has raised $2.9 million in a seed round led by YC, Justin Mateen and Pioneer Fund.

TagHive: TagHive, a Samsung Ventures-backed edtech startup, announced it has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding led by Forest Partners, an alternative investment firm based in South Korea.

Keka HR: KekaHR has raised $1.6 million from Recur Club, a platform where companies generating recurring revenue can access growth capital.

Tyke: Fintech startup Tyke has raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed round from 9Unicorns, Better Capital, Ratio Ventures, and Venture Catalysts. Angels including Jitendra Gupta, Sweta and Amrish Rau, Varun Mittal, Sandeep Aggarwal, Navin Surya, and Ajay Rajan also participated in the round.

Minko: Minko, a fintech platform focused on providing credit facilities to small kirana and retail shop owners, has raised $1.5 million (around Rs 11 crore) in a seed funding round led by LC Nueva AIF, an India domiciled Category II AIF Fund, where LC Nueva Investment Partners LLP is the Investment Manager. 

Dhurina: Edtech startup Dhurnia has raised $1.2 million led by RVCF and other investors like LetsVenture, RBD Publication, India Accelerator, Precision Startup Advisory, and Pai Ventures.

Dista: Dista, a Pune and Delaware (US) based deeptech startup, has announced to have raised $1.2 million. The seed funding round was led by Pentathlon Ventures in participation with Core 91 and other individual investors.

Verandah: Mumbai-headquartered conscious luxury resortwear and swimwear brand Verandah has raised $1.1 million in a seed round from Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, Neeraj Arora, former CBO of WhatsAppWhatsApp, Lydia Jett, partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, PDS Venture and other investors.

Fabriclore: Jaipur-based textile e-commerce platform Fabriclore has raised $700,000 in a pre-Series A round of funding led by Fluid Ventures. 

NuShala: Lucknow-based school management platform NuShala has announced raising $0.62 million in a seed round led by Meraki Labs, backed by leading Indian entrepreneurs Gaurav Agrawal, Kunal Shah and others. 

Esah Tea: Mangaldoi-based Esah Tea raised $0.4 million (Rs 3 crore) from NEDFI Venture Capital Ltd, a Guwahati-based financial institution. 

Flo Mobility: Bengaluru-based Flo Mobility raised $0.4 million from DevX Venture Fund — a co-working space and accelerator, Venture Garage Angels and Blume Venture’s Blume Founder Fund, among others.

Perfora: Oral care brand Perfora has raised a pre-seed round of $0.26 million from a clutch of consumer-focused investors. The pre-seed round was led by Sauce.vc, a venture capital fund that backs early-stage consumer brands.

Paisagrowth: Assisted fintech platform Paisagrowth has raised $0.25 million in seed capital from startup accelerator GSF and other investors including Dinesh Agarwal, CEO of IndiaMart, Dinesh Gulati, COO of IndiaMart, Rajesh Sawhney, Founder and CEO of GSF and Pras Hanuma, CEO of Infoquest.

Kohbee: Edtech platform Kohbee, which helps online educators manage their businesses end-to-end, announced it has raised $0.23 million in a pre-seed funding round led by a group of angel investors that included Ankit Mehrotra (CEO, Dineout), Saurabh Aggarwal (Founder, Fitso), Ah! Ventures, Fortunexus and others. 

StarClinch: Delhi-based artist discovery and live entertainment ticketing platform StarClinch has raised $0.23 million in seed round led by Artha Venture Fund. Founder and Managing Director of Nazara Technologies, Nitish Mittersain also participated in the round.

Yodacart: Yodacart, which enables same-day delivery among other ecommerce services, raises $0.22 million from Ajith Daniel, a New York-based angel investor. 

TeaminUp: CoCreate Ventures, a Bengaluru-based ‘Venture Studio’ and a fund, along with PES University Venture Labs (PVL), announced they’ve invested $0.2 million each in Bengaluru-based startups TeaminUp and Assert.

Assert: CoCreate Ventures, a Bengaluru-based ‘Venture Studio’ and a fund, along with PES University Venture Labs (PVL), announced they’ve invested $0.2 million each in Bengaluru-based startups TeaminUp and Assert.

Deciwood: Deciwood, an Indian brand that makes Bluetooth speakers, announced it has closed funding of $0.2 million led by digital fundraising platform Shuru Up.

Neauphony: Neauphony, a technology startup focused on wearable devices, has raised Rs 1 crore or $0.13 million in a funding round led by DERBI Foundation, a Bengaluru -based healthtech incubation centre hosted by the Dayananda Sagar Institutions (DST), CIIE – IIM Ahmedabad, and Ah Ventures.

CosIQ: Skincare brand CosIQ has raised $0.66 million from Shark Tank India in a seed round. Investors in the brand include Vineeta Singh, CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics and Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO of Shaadi.com who made the investment against 25% equity in the company.

Undisclosed

Fantico, Fast&Up, and Doosra did not disclose their financial details.   

Acquisitions this week

Swiss impact investor BlueOrchard-backed Satya MicroCapital Ltd, focused on self-employed rural women, has completed a strategic investment to pick up 24% stake in Baid Housing Finance.

L&T Finance Holdings will sell its mutual fund business L&T Investment Management Ltd to HSBC Asset Management (India) Ltd for $425 million (around RS 3,200 crore).

Ceinsys Tech Ltd, formerly known as ADCC Infocad Ltd, said its board of directors has approved a 100% stake buy in Zodius Capital-backed engineering services startup Allygrow Technologies Pvt Ltd for a little over Rs 68 crore in a mix of cash and stock deal.

Sony’s India unit has finalised a deal with local rival Zee Entertainment to merge their television channels, film assets and streaming platforms, joining forces to take on the likes of Netflix and Disney in India.

Masai School, which offers courses in technology, has acquired data analytics and end-to-end placement preparation company Prepleaf for $1 million.

Fitness and wellness platform Cult.fit has acquired at-home cardio-equipment brands RPM fitness, Fitkit, Onefitplus and outdoor bicycles brand, Urban Terrain.

Teachmint, an education infrastructure startup, has acquired Teachee, a course-selling platform that enables teachers to sell educational products like online courses, marking its second buyout this month itself.